


Not Just A Blip In Time

by missthingsplace



Category: Doctor Who, Torchwood
Genre: Angst, Comfort, Gen, M/M, One Shot, Ratings: PG
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-06
Updated: 2014-02-06
Packaged: 2018-01-11 10:39:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1172076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missthingsplace/pseuds/missthingsplace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set almost one year after the end of episode 5.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Just A Blip In Time

**Title:**  Not Just A Blip In Time  
 **Author:** [](http://missthingsplace.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://missthingsplace.livejournal.com/)**missthingsplace**  
 **Parings/characters:** Jack, 10th Doctor  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Torchwood or any of the characters ... unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while.  
 **Summary:** Set almost one year after the end of episode 5.  
 **Warnings:** **Huge spoiler for COE episode 5**  
 **Rating: PG**  
  
 **A/N I'm sorry, this isn't a fix it fic but it demanded to be written, very angsty but it does end with hope.**

** Almost one year later. **

Jack stumbled out of the bar, tripped over and tumbled down onto the pavement with a loud groan of pain followed by a string of slurred expletives and tried to focus his eyes on the pair of shoes inches from his face.

Gulping Jack slowly lifted his head and let his glazed eyes travel up from the red trainers, over the pinstriped legs and rolled over onto his back as he found himself looking into a pair of familiar eyes.

“Doctor?” Jack whispered.

The Doctor reached down and offered Jack his hand, grasping it tightly Jack let himself be pulled to his feet, not wanting to let go as he tried to steady himself.

“You're a hard man to find when you don't want to be found Jack.” Jack Doctor said, taking in Jack's unkempt clothes and unshaven face.

Jack just shrugged. “I need a drink.”

“I think you've had enough for this entire planet.” The Doctor told him sternly. “Come on.”

Still holding Jack's hand tightly he led the inebriated man through the narrow streets of the planet, thinking how apt the place seemed at that moment. The local weather system for the planet was always the say, thick cloud cover and perpetual rain. 

“In.” The Doctor told Jack simply as they reached the TARDIS, opening the door and practically shoving him inside.

Letting Jack revel in his silence he took him deeper into the TARDIS, not saying a single word until he opened a door and showed Jack into his old bedroom on the vessel.

“Sleep Jack, rest.”

“I don't need to, I don't deserve to.” Jack told him, his once vibrant blue eyes dull and lifeless.

“When did you last sleep Jack?”

“No idea, months ago.”

“Then you need to let yourself sleep.” The Doctor told him gently.

“If I let myself sleep I'll dream, dream of him and when I wake up it'll be like I've lost him all over again.” Jack replied, a tear rolling down his face. “And it was all my fault.”

The TARDIS hummed comfortingly around them as the Doctor spoke again.

“She won't let you, if you don't want to dream the TARDIS will see to it that you don't.” The Doctor said as he pulled Jack's coat from his shoulders trying not to show his concern at the state of Jack's clothes. “Rest and we'll talk later.”

“You don't know what happened, what I did. If you knew you'd throw me out.”

“I know Jack.” The Doctor replied, undressing Jack as he stood there as if he had forgotten how to do the simple task.

When Jack was down to his underpants the Doctor pulled back the cover on the bed and waited patiently as Jack slowly climbed into the bed, covering him up as Jack rested his head on the pillow.

“I'll see you soon.” The Doctor told Jack, leaving the room with Jack's clothes in his arms and closing the door behind him.

Jack ignored the tears sliding down his face as he closed his eyes, while outside the Doctor stroked a hand tenderly over the TARDIS as he spoke to her.

“Look after him for me.”

The TARDIS hummed in reply, smiling softly the Doctor headed back to the main console room and started the engine. He wasn't quite sure where he was headed but he knew he had to get Jack as far away as possible from a planet that thrived on grief.

When Jack awoke nearly two days later from a dreamless sleep he knew exactly where he was and had no illusions that Ianto was alive, no sudden thoughts coming back to him to shock after a dream where he still lived.

“Thank you.” Jack whispered softly to the TARDIS.

Sliding from the bed Jack frowned a little at the bath on the far side of his room, then chuckled from the first time in over eighteen months when he realised that the TARDIS was giving him everything he needed, no doubt prompted by the Doctor.

Lowering himself into the hot bubbles Jack caught sight of his now clean clothes laying neatly folded on the small chair by the bed, closed his eyes and allowed the water to sooth and cleanse his body as he tried to ignore the hangover that came from being drunk for the best part of the last nine or tenth months that even two days of sleep couldn't quite cure.

Sometime later, the water cooled to tepid Jack was dressed and heading through the TARDIS in search of the Doctor, the TARDIS, leading him in the right direction to the immaculate kitchen where the Doctor was pouring water from the kettle into a teapot.

“Just in time.” The Doctor said a little too brightly, placing two mugs down on the work surface next to the tea pot. “Have a seat.”

Jack propped himself up on one of the stools that stood around the small table and watched as the Doctor finished making the tea, taking the mug offered to him and sipping at the hot liquid.

“You're looking better, how are you feeling?” The Doctor asked, settling on the stool opposite Jack.

“Like shit, and not just because of the hangover.” Jack replied sullenly. “Nothing will ever make me happy again.”

“I know what happened Jack, that's why I was looking for you.”

“To punish me?” Jack asked.

“No, to be here for you, as your friend.” The Doctor replied. “Gwen called Martha, she called me.”

“If you know I caused the death of ... the death of Ianto and Stephen then surely you'd just want to let me wallow in my own grief.” Jack gulped back a sob.

“Ianto went with you willingly, he knew he could die young.”

“So not the point!” Jack spat. “If I hadn't agreed to the terms of the 456 the first time then they would never have come back, it was all my fault and I sacrificed my own grandson to save ten percent of the children on earth. My daughter hates me, if I could die I would have killed myself once I had stopped the 456.”

“Have you let yourself grieve?” The Doctor asked calmly.

“Nothing but since I left earth.”

“Getting drunk, staying drunk and wallowing in self pity is not grieving Jack.”

“Fuck you!”

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, if Jack was resorting to swearing he was getting through to him.

“Sorry, not interested.” The Doctor replied, wishing he hadn't when Jack glared at him. “Jack, I'm sorry, completely inappropriate.” 

“Just take me back where you found me, I don't deserve your help.” Jack replied, slamming the mug down on the table, tea spilling everywhere as the china cracked and broke with the force.

“I'll get a cloth.” The Doctor said, jumping to his feet and grabbing the tea towel from beside the sink as he heard a loud sob from Jack.

“Jack!” The Doctor threw the tea towel at the mess on the table and ran to Jack, now a crumpled heap on the floor as he sobbed his eyes out.

Sitting down next to him he pulled Jack into his arms, holding him tightly as he sobbed into his chest and not caring that his suit jacket was getting wet with tears until Jack began to calm down.

“I feel like my heart has been ripped from my chest, like I'm missing a vital part of my body, how can I live on without him? I loved him but I never told him, even though he told me as he was dying I couldn't bring myself to say just those three little words that mean so much.”

“He knew Jack, you always know when someone loves you.”

“But I should have said it, it's what he needed to hear.” Jack replied. “He asked me not to forget him, told me that in a thousand years I wouldn't remember him and I promised I wouldn't.”

“Then you won't.” 

“Ianto once said he thought he would just be a blip in time for me, what if it's true, if I live for eternity will I still remember him?”

“I don't know Jack, no one can know the answer to that question.”

“Isn't there anything you can do? Reverse the process, get rid of the vortex inside my body so I can die remembering him?” Jack asked, his eyes pleading as he looked into the Doctor's.

“No, I'm sorry.” The Doctor replied solemnly. 

“Then I need a way to remember him, I have to remember my beautiful Welshman.”

“I know the hub was destroyed, can you still get into Torchwood's files?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Jack replied, wondering what the Doctor was thinking.

“Come with me.” The Doctor told him, pulling Jack to his feet and taking him to another room.

It was like a small office, with just a wooden desk and a laptop computer sat upon it. Sitting down the Doctor turned on the machine and tapped furiously at the keypad for a few minutes.

“Eureka.” The Doctor exclaimed as he found the files, pulling up an old CCTV image from the memory banks and Jack watched a Ianto walked across the hub with a coffee mug in each hand and then up to his office.

“What are you trying to do, torture me?” Jack asked.

“No, I want you to tell the TARDIS what footage you want to keep, anything that means something to you with Ianto, I'm not as naïve as you think Jack, I know they'll be more personal, private footage than this and she will make a montage of it for you and install it onto your wrist strap.”

“Really?” Jack asked. “I don't know what to say.”

“Nothing needed Jack, I'll leave you to choose, as much as you want.”

“Thank you.” 

** One thousand years later. **

The beeping of his watch strap stopped Jack in his tracks.

“Hey, are you coming with me or not?” The attractive blonde asked.

“Sorry, something just came up.” Jack replied, smiling at the message his wrist strap was telling him.

“Suit yourself.” She replied and stropped off.

Jack ran out the bar and down the street, not stopping until he reached the small place he was renting on the sunny planet he had chosen to stay on for a while and let himself in.

Closing all the blinds against the bright sunlight Jack pressed a button and the images he had chosen so long ago in the TARDIS showed on the white wall opposite him, setting back on the comfy sofa Jack smiled as he watched.

Images of Ianto making coffee, tidying the hub and cleaning his coat were mingled in with them in his office, the archives, the hot house, the conference room and countless other places being intimate as the Doctor would put it. 

In some the sex was fast and furious, in others desperate but for the most part they were images of them making love. He and Ianto showing each other just how they felt without the need for words or labels.

His wrist strap had beeped on the anniversary of Ianto's death every year since the first one. At first Jack couldn't bare to watch, barely getting past the first few minutes before bursting into tears and bawling his eyes out but now, as the Doctor has predicted he was able to remember his long lost lover and say a small thanks to him for allowing him to love him.

When it ended over two hours later Jack sat quietly for a while, eyes closed remembering his touch, his kiss, his unique scent as he did every year with a smile on his face before taking a candle from a drawer and lighting it in his memory beside the picture he had printed of them both laughing at something in the hub before he'd left the TARDIS as he spoke out loud.

“One day Ianto I will have you back, one day there will be a way to revive you and I will tell you that I love you too and that I kept my promise, that I would never forget you.”

Jack had no idea if it would actually be possible as Ianto had been technically dead when he had transferred him from the cryogenic facility on earth to the one on the planet Tany'o with the Doctor's help but he would never give up hope that he would have his gorgeous Welsh lover back again one day.

The End.  



End file.
